13 January 2010

Infants and Education

As is appropriate, my coursework at Erikson in human development is starting with infancy. Although I took human development courses as an undergraduate, I feel like I am really learning new things here.

One thing that is striking me is how little I have worked with infants. It never came up in my student teaching; and the youngest children I had the opportunity to work with were one-year-olds at the 65th Street Co-op in Seattle - and that was only 90 minutes per week.

There is something fascinating about how infants discover their world - through sensory experiences and through the objects and people around them - and I hope to find the opportunity to work with infants in the future. So many of the wonderful teachers who are writing online now are working with three-year-olds and up. I would love to be reading writing by teachers who are infant teachers. Is there such a thing happening right now? Do you know a fabulous infant teacher who would be willing to share, even just with my curious mind? Send them my way if you do!

Thanks - I'm really hoping that something pops up. If I was in the states, I would be visiting more programs - I am not conversational in French or Flemish, so I can't really be looking for those people here! I'll be sure to share when I find those infant teachers...they're out there somewhere!

I agree, sharing online is amazing. I did a degree online and the amount of sharing that happened there was a lot more than in a traditional university.

Personally, I love to read blogs, yours included, and I am inspired and learn through them. I post my thoughts online, because you never know, collaboration might come out of it, or someone else might learn.

Infancy and ECE are not my area at all, yet I find myself so drawn to it all the time. I love to take those "traditional" ECE ideas into my 8-9 year-olds classroom, same as with adult ideas.

Yet, I have no blogs about primary (upper) in my GoogleReader. If you have any suggestions, let me know!

I will tell my one's and two's class teachers they need to start posting more! I also just finished devouring "tools of the mind" - the book about the great program in the states right now. It has two chapters on infants and toddlers- and they are fabulous. Some of the best I have found - the research into this age group is so sketchy-at-best. It's awful. I'll share anything I come across....